THE STORY OF 'BABY'

A B-17 AND HER CREW IN SWITZERLAND

In loving memory
of John Steichen, B-17 navigator and story-teller extraordinaire,
and the inspiration behind this web site.

John took his last flight October 5, 2011.On April 24, 1944, a B-17G from the 407th
BS, 92nd BG, piloted by 1st Lt. William "Woody" Parramore, landed at Altenrhein airfield in
Switzerland. The plane had been attacked by German fighters about half
an hour before their target, the Dornier aircraft factory at Oberpfaffenhofen, near
Munich. The crew was able to continue their mission, with their
engineer/top turret gunner, T/Sgt. Roy Hommer, very badly wounded. Upon
completing the bomb run, a propeller ran out of control, and a second
engine lost oil pressure. Parramore decided to try for nearby
Altenrhein rather
than land in Germany. Bailing out was not an option because of the
seriously
wounded crewman. The entire crew survived the landing, with Hommer
going
to a hospital because of his severe wounds. Parramore later wrote a narrative poem about this mission.

'Baby' landing in Switzerland

After an initial quarantine period in Chaumont,
the crew
was sent to Adelboden to be
interned. The officers were eventually separated from the enlisted men
and sent to Davos. Under strict
orders (from American military attaché Brigadier General
Barnwell Legge) not to attempt escape from their internee status under
penalty of courts martial, and watched carefully by the Swiss police,
the American internees' time in Switzerland was spent playing cards,
exploring new bars, playing chess, meeting the local young women, and
plotting escapes. Six members of "Baby's" crew eventually escaped,
including Hommer! Radioman T/Sgt. Carl D. Stetson attempted escape
three times, and was successful the third time. Internees caught while
attempting escape were sent to the infamous Wauwilermoos punishment camp
for criminals. Swiss civilians found trying to help Americans escape
would be imprisoned, then exiled.

The plane was named "Baby" after bombardier 2nd
Lt. John
Garcia's child born while the crew was in England. The crew was from
the
407th Bomb Squadron, 92nd Bomb Group - part of "The Mighty Eighth" -
based
at Podington. Parramore flew on 21
missions, the first as co-pilot on another plane, and the last 20 with
his own crew. The traditional first mission as a co-pilot was the
standard qualifier to lead your own crew over Nazi controlled Europe.
Navigator 2nd Lt. John Steichen also flew as the navigator on an
additional two missions with other crews, thereby gaining the
distinction of the most missions (22) of all the crew.

The original crew, Dalhart, TX

Co-pilot 2nd Lt. Oscar "Sammy" Sampson and John
Garcia were among the first American internees to successfully escape
from Switzerland (via Nazi occupied France, then via Allied controlled
North Africa) and reach England, just six weeks after their arrival in
Davos. They had the
help of sympathetic Swiss citizens and the French underground. The
famous
incident that prompted their escape has been described in at least
three
books (see Acknowledgments
below). Parramore and Steichen followed them six weeks later.
Many other interned American flyers had attempted escape earlier,
before the informal escape network of Swiss civilians was well
organized.

More stories are yet to be told on these pages.
Frequent additions are being made.

Come back soon!

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO
PERISHED ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Acknowledgments

The inspiration for this site came from a single
paragraph in the book, Strangers in a Strange Land, by Stapfer
and Kunzle, where this writer first learned of his uncle Oscar
Sampson's participation, along with Garcia, in the theft of the Nazi
swastika plaque from the German Consulate in Davos. They were to be
sent to Wauwilermoos, but were able to escape back to England, after a
brief tour of Geneva, occupied France, and North Africa. Rusty Bloxom,
Chief Historian of The Mighty Eighth Air
Force Heritage Museum, was most helpful in providing the reference to
this
book.

The same story of the theft and escape is also
mentioned in another recent book, Refuge from the Reich, by
Stephen Tanner. Tanner describes both the story of the American
internees and the history of Switzerland as an armed neutral country.

In a third book, Gast Feind Schaft, author
Urs Gredig describes this same incident in the context of the history
of the German Nazi party in Switzerland. Davos had become home to many
German citizens since the earliest days of the tuberculosis sanitariums
in the late 19th century. During and after World War I, many German
soldiers with tuberculosis were sent to the several German-owned
sanitariums, including one Wilhelm Gustloff, who remained as a resident
in Davos. He was an early follower of Hitler, and when the Nazi party
came to power in Germany in 1933, Hitler appointed Gustloff as the head
of the German Nazi party in Switzerland. Gustloff naturally established
his headquarters in Davos. After Gustloff's assassination in 1936, his
successor was both the head of the party for Switzerland AND the consul
in residence at the German Consulate in Davos. The theft of the
swastika from the German Consulate building takes on added political
significance, if only symbolic, in this setting. Note: the title of
this book, literally "Host Enemy-ship", is a play on words of
"Gastfreundschaft" (literally "guest friendship"), the German word for
"hospitality". "Feindschaft" means "enmity". To German speaking people,
the pun is obvious.

Most of the information and photographs of the
crew of 'Baby' have been provided by navigator 2nd Lt. John Steichen,
storyteller extraordinaire.

Additional details of the escape of Sampson and
Garcia
were supplied by F. Rene Garcia, the nephew of John H. Garcia.

The letters and some photographs are from the
collection of Oscar Sampson's sister, Dorothy Rathje.

Pauly Scherrer-Buol and her family befriended the
officers while in Davos, and has kindly supplied additional information
about the events during the summer of 1944 in Davos. She also wrote an
article on this subject for the Davoser Revue. I was privileged to meet
her this past Summer. See some of her photographs in the new additions
to Life in
Switzerland.

Kata Straub, a Swiss high school student, an avid
fan of WWII history, and a proficient linguist, has supplied, with the
able assistance of Dr. Timothy Nelson, director of
Dokumentationsbibliothek Davos, several references about Davos during
WWII. These recent articles, all mention the famous swastika theft by
Garcia and Sampson.

Dr. Daniel Bourgeois of the Swiss Federal Archives
in Bern kindly provided key documents regarding the adventures of
Sampson and Garcia. He and his assistant, Marie-Helene Guex, also
provided complete documentation on the escape and repatriation dates of
all of the crew
members.

Additional information and photographs of the
actual landing at Altenrhein have been provided by Harald Rauch and
Alfons Eigenmann, both of Fliegermuseum
Altenrhein. Harald is the editor of the museum's magazine. Alfons
is a guide at the museum, and his wife Sonja was a witness to the
landing at Altenrhein in 1944. She was 11 at the time, and Alfons was
then a 17-year-old glider pilot at Altenrhein.

Mr. Robert Long, President of the Swiss Internees Association,
has been invaluable in keeping me honest, pointing out errors in the
books noted above, and steering me in the right direction. He is my
"navigator." Robert Martyr of England, an associate member of this
organization, has also supplied photographs.

Mr. Fredy Peter, who grew up in Davos, has
supplied details of the swastika theft and other information about
Davos during 1944-45. Fredy's father, a soldier in the Swiss army
during WWII, helped rescue
several American flyers after they had bailed out over the Alps near
Davos.
One incident took place close to the Swiss-Austria border. Fredy has
written a book, to be published in September, 2002, about the landings
and crashes in Switzerland during WWII. The title is Jump Boys, Jump
.

Stan Nordsted has supplied photographs of
Podington airfield as it looked in 1961.

Phyllis Drees and Jack Kleinsorg provided photos
and the mission log. Phyllis's uncle was the copilot of the B-17 flying
on "Baby's" left wing, and Jack was the navigator of the B-17 on the
right wing, during the mission on April 24, 1944.

Lt. Col. Robert D. Elliot, historian of the 92nd
BG, has supplied details of the aircraft flown on the missions of the
crew.

Dr. Gerhard Winkler has provided color photos of
the B-17 "Lucky Lady" at a 1988 airshow at Altenrhein.

Finally, a "thank you" to Edgar Schmued, designer
of the P-51 Mustang, perhaps the most famous fighter of WWII. Before
the long-range P-51 was available for escorting bombers all the way to
the target and back, the Eighth Air Force suffered horrendous
casualties, even forcing a temporary stand-down in late 1943.
Without the P-51, perhaps thousands, or even tens of thousands, more
American flyers would have been killed, wounded, or captured on long
flights into the heart of the Third Reich. The
P-51 started flying missions in December, 1943, and rapidly built
up
strength during the first half of 1944, just when the crew of 'Baby'
was
flying deep into Germany. John Steichen remembers seeing P-51's
strafing ground targets in Berlin during one mission. Ray Wagner, an
archivist with the San Diego Aerospace Museum, is the author of my
reference: Mustang Designer, Edgar Schmued and the P-51.
Schmued went on to lead the design of the F-86, which won the Korean
air war, and the T-38, still in use by the U.S. Air Force and flown by
the astronauts.
Read The War Pony, a poem about the P-51.

The author managed to return the favor to Edgar
Schmued
this past year, when the software products of his company, JMI Software
Systems, were used on the T-38C avionics upgrade program. A curious arc
of
history, indeed.

Author's notes

The biggest challenge in creating this web site
was determining the correct spelling of Oberpfaffenhofen. The
spelling variations among the various personal and official records of
this (characteristically six syllable) German name are quite varied.
Without the correct spelling, of course, it was difficult for this
writer to find the town on any map. One might imagine the
conversations among the Eighth Air Force targeting group,
especially with novice personnel fresh from America's heartland, when
they initially tried to locate the Dornier aircraft factory: "Ober
what??"

One can assume that during a mission all
navigators, bombardiers and other airmen, while busy with their routine
chores (including firing their machine guns at German fighters), simply
called it "the target". Besides, pronouncing all six syllables would
have used up too much of
their precious bottled oxygen.

Upon further consideration, the target name
problem is not specific to German cities. Try pronouncing a few of the
target towns in Pas de Calais.

Contact Information

To obtain more information or send comments, send
email to Ed Rathje, using the following email address, verbally
encoded
so only a human, not an automated email address scavenger, can use it:
user
name - "ejr", domain name - "jmisys.com". Just put an "at sign"
between
the user name and the domain name.

August 31, 2002 - added a third book reference to
Acknowledgments. This new book tells of the history of the
German Nazi party in Switzerland, headquartered in Davos! Also added
the insignia of The Swiss Theater of Inactivity as the site logo (see a
large version and explanation in Escape from Switzerland). Moved
pointer
for
Winston Churchill section to Life at Podington.

August 25, 2002 - updated the story of the theft
of the swastika, with a new photo from Paula Scherrer-Buol, in
Escape from Switzerland. Added photographs of the Buol
family farm in 1940 to Life in Switzerland .

August 21, 2002 - returned from my second trip to
Switzerland, where I met Pauly Scherrer-Buol, who acted as my
tour guide in Davos. I also met with Dr. Timothy Nelson, director of
the document department of Bibliothek Davos. I visited old friends from
last
year, Dr. Maurus Pfister and Harry Rauch, and met new friends, the
Straub family - Geof, Verena, and their daughter Kata. Finally, I
visited the Swiss National Archives, where Dr. Daniel Bourgeois and his
assistant Marie-Helene Guex provided help with my research. Look for
full details in September. Many
thanks to all my Swiss friends for their generosity and hospitality.

July 27, 2002 - Kata Straub sent a postcard from
Normandy (her second visit). Added an image from the envelope to
Dedication. See the postcard.

July 27, 2002 - added part of a letter from Carl
Stetson's sister Erma. See "Letter from Carl's sister" in Baby's
Crew.

June 27, 2002 - updated the Acknowledgments
section on this page for Fredy Peter and Edgar Schmued.

June 26, 2002 - added a new story about John
Steichen's encounter with a chess champion to Life in
Switzerland .

June 24, 2002 - met the family (sisters Erma and
Mona) and friends (Thelma and Dorothy) of radio operator Carl Stetson,
who died in March of this year. Carl escaped 3 times, the last time all
the way home. He suffered very harsh treatment during his stays in
Wauwilermoos, and contracted pneumonia while there. His successful
escape story can
be found in Escape from Switzerland.

June 22, 2002 - added documents received from
the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin describing the theft from the
Consulate
and repercussions within the German government. Fredy Peter is working
on
translations. See the original documents,courtesy of Herr Gunter Scheidemann of Auswartiges Amt.

April 24, 2002 - visited John Steichen, who told
me some more stories, on the 58th anniversary of the landing at
Altenrhein.

April 23, 2002 - added new site of landings in
Denmark and Sweden to Links to Related Sites.

April 6, 2002 - updated Escape from
Switzerland with the help of John Garcia's nephew, F. René
García.

March 3, 2002 - learned that radio operator Carl
Stetson has died. Navigator John Steichen and ball turret gunner
William Dorsa are the only surviving crew members.

January 29, 2002 - added photographs of the
B-17 "Lucky Lady" flying at the 1988 Altenrhein Airshow to The Last
Mission.

January 20, 2002 - corrected details in The
Missions of Baby's Crew with the assistance of Lt. Col. Robert D.
Elliot, historian of the 92nd BG.

January 13, 2002 - added and corrected details in
Life in Switzerland and Escape from Switzerland with
the kind assistance of Pauly Scherrer-Buol, a friend of the crew while
in Davos.

January 3, 2002 - added 2 new sites to Links
to Related Sites about three other B-17's on the same mission of
April 22, 1944, two of which also landed in Switzerland.

December 14, 2001 - added a new site to
Links to Related Sites about the man who started the American
internee cemetery at Münsingen, Switzerland, and who also helped
hundreds of internees escape.

December 12, 2001 - added details to the
escape of Steichen and Parramore, added information about Stetson's and
Hommer's escapes and the repatriation of the rest of the crew, in
Escape from Switzerland. Thanks once more to Dr. Daniel Bourgeois
and his staff at the Swiss Federal Archives.

December 11, 2001 - added link to Arthur Glenn
Foster's story to Life in Switzerland and Links to Related
Sites . Foster, of the 91st BG, entered Switzerland from occupied
France, after
evading capture. Foster spent time visiting Davos.

December 9, 2001 - revised escape narrative for
Garcia and Sampson in Escape from Switzerland.

December 8, 2001 - added map of the Allied front
lines in southern France to Escape from Switzerland, and moved
description of the war situation while in Davos to Life in
Switzerland.

November 30, 2001 - added official escape report
for Carl Stetson to Escape from Switzerland.

November 5, 2001 - added a photograph and article
excerpt about Garcia and Sampson to Life in Switzerland. The
article is from the Davoser Revue, December, 1998. The adventure
is still talked about today!

October 12, 2001 - added official letters
regarding the theft of the German Consulate insignia to Escape from
Switzerland .

October 8, 2001 - added a photograph of the crew
of 'Lil Brat' to Mission Log in The Last Mission.

October 7, 2001 - added Mission Log to The
Last Mission.

October 5, 2001 - added Woody Parramore's poem to
The Last Mission.

September 27, 2001 - added official Letter of
Regret about the theft to Escape from Switzerland.

September 21, 2001 - added photographs of
Podington Airfield circa 1961 to Life at Podington.

August 31, 2001 - added a hiking map to Life
in Switzerland, showing Davos Platz and neighboring Davos Dorf.

August 30, 2001 - updated Links to Related
Sites with additional sites about the same mission of April 24,
1944.

August 27, 2001 - updated this page, Links to
Related Sites, and Dedication. Added Missing Air Crew
Report to The Last Mission.

August 24, 2001 - added squadron codes to Life
at
Podington.

August 20, 2001 - added more details to
Escape from Switzerland, updated Acknowledgments, and
added a link to the story of 'Toonerville Trolley', which made
a forced landing in Germany during the April 24 mission to
Oberpfaffenhofen. Great photographs! See Links to Related Sites.

August 11, 2001 - added to "Series of German
Language Lessons" in Life in Switzerland.

August 10, 2001 - added photograph of the German
Consulate to Life in Switzerland.

August 5, 2001 - added a "Series of Letters" to Escape
from
Switzerland,
updated "Series of Letters" at both Life at
Podington and Life in Switzerland, updated Life at
Podington, and updated Escape from Switzerland.

August 2, 2001 - added a "Series of Letters" to Life
in
Switzerland.

July 31, 2001 - added another photograph to Baby's
Crew,
and added notes to the "Series of German Language Lessons"
in Life in Switzerland.

July 29, 2001 - added a "Series of German
Language Lessons", from the 1944 Davos newspaper, to Life in
Switzerland.